Free download credits do not accumulate: you receive free credits every day, but if you do not spend your free credits every day, you will not receive more the next day. Please see the help page for more information.

Your free download credits should be topped off every night around 3:00am. Make sure to set your time zone on your account settings page for this to work correctly!

Update: on Feb. 25 I revamped the free daily credits system to make it more robust, and so that everyone would get their credits overnight. The old system had a lot of problems, but the new system should work much better. If you think you are not receiving your free daily credits, make sure that you see point #1 above (download credits do no accumulate): make sure to spend your free credits every day if you want them topped off.

Jordan: I'm just curious if something changed as far as the download credits and/or the time they are credited to us? I mainly ask because in the past several months, what would've been the normal update time (approx 7-9pm EST) I have not yet received any credits for the day again. It seems since the 17th whenever we all got them late (on the 18th, the next day in the states). Mine have been off about by roughly 12 hours ever since that day. I just need to know because if it has change I may need to adjust the time I check in at the site because I'm afraid I'm losing my DC's) I'm thinking I lost a days worth of DCs in there somewhere???

@Shawna: Yes, the time at which your download credits are topped off may have changed after the 17th. The reason is that the number of people in the "queue" to be refilled was too many, and so the system got backed up.

That being said, it shouldn't really make much of a difference when the credits are topped off: let's say they get topped off at 9:00pm. You don't need to log in at 9:00 pm and user your credits right then so that they get topped off the next day. Rather, you can log in the next morning, and use your credits then, and they should still get topped off again around 9:00pm. The process works on a 24-hour cycle, not a date cycle... does that make sense?

@Courtney: the problem in your case is that when I gave you those extra download credits a while back because of the bait-and-switch problem, I gave them to you as free DC, rather than purchased DC, so the system was seeing your credits as already "topped off"... I've switched those credits over to purchased DC, so you should get your free DC every day now.

Jordan: I now realize my NEW time must be around 9am which is perfectly fine & understandable, but I did miss one day in there then because I got some on the 16th at approx 7-8pm and then not again until approx 3-4pm on the 18th(at least that's when I noticed them there, however I was not checking every hour, though). Other than that ONE day I didn't get any DC, then I will from know from now on to wait until 9am (ish) give or take a couple hours... I do understand I have the next 24 hrs to use them, it has just shifted the time frame by a bit. I did see your other post to me and appreciate you offering to replenish my one day worth I did miss. Thanks for explaining the changes about the queue. It helps, even though you don't owe us an explanation that you help us to understand the "behind-the-scenes".

Jordan, I didn't need to know I needed to post in this thread (I created a thread about my download credits on this board) - sorry. Yesterday I did not get my credits. Could you fix that for me? Thanks...

I haven't received any DC credits today Just thought I'd let you know - I'm not complaining since they are free and I haven't lost anything. But thought you might like to know. I also checked and do have the correct time zone on my profile. I'll check later to see if it updated.

@Vanessa, Cat: thanks for letting me know. I think the issue here is just what I mentioned in the other thread: to those who did not receive their DC this past night: please be patient. The system may have kicked in during the night, after your refill time. Please spend some DC (if you have any in your account), and wait for them to be refilled this coming night. I have just checked the system logs, and free credits are being refilled correctly.

Mine have been awesome too since the kinks and time thing all got worked out. I get mine around 3 am every morning just as you said. This works perfect for me because it really takes the pressure off of when I have to download. I can actually get them anytime during a given day and it has made things seem like a breeze for me. Thanks so much Jordan for working so hard on the time they updated!!! We all know it was a huge undertaking and appreciate your investment.

I have 5 DC, but I am not able to download anything under the "Kit" tab that is 5 DC or less. There's a "Donate Now" button instead of the "Download" Button. I get the "Download" Button when I go to the "Asset" or "Template" pages.

Hi Marie, sorry for the confusion. There should be a message above the donate button on kit pages explaining that full kit downloads are intended as a bonus for people who donate to the site... is that message not showing up for you?

Because of the large file sizes and the cost of bandwidth and storage space, the idea behind full kit downloads has always been that they are a kind of "bonus", or "thank you" for people who donate: others are free to download kit items individually as they become available, which is less of a strain on our resources. Almost ALL kit items show up on the site for individual download at some point, so even people who never donate can effectively download entire kits for free over the course of several days using their free credits.

Hi Cindy, sorry for your trouble. I checked our transaction log, and it seems to show that you received 10 DC as you should have both yesterday and today, and that you currently have 10 DC in your account... so I'm not exactly sure what's going on here . Please let me know if you have any further trouble... for now I'm just going to go ahead and give you some extra DC to make up for the mistake.

I think there are issues with my DC points. Yesterday I had points and used 3 points and today I went back to 9 points. I think I should be getting more than 3 points when I use the points. Can you look into this when you have a second? Thanks so much!!

Hi Krista. If I am understanding your problem well, you had 9 DCs yesterday, used 3, and when today stated you had 9 again. Is this right?
Because, if I understand well, it´s not a problem, is how the system works: your free dcs accumulate on top of bonus/paid credits, and, if you use only the free ones you´ll wake up with the same ammount of credits everyday, independently on using them all or not.

I hope I helped. But, if it´s not exactly your problem, Jordan will give you a feedback as soon as he can.

@Krista: sorry for the confusion. What Lórien says is correct: download credits do not accumulate, they just get refilled to your free maximum. So you need to use all your free credits every day if you want to make the most of the credits. See the download credits help page for more information.

Hello Jordan, I have read everything regarding community points and download points in these forums, the FAQ, comments, etc., and I'm still confused. I think this is one of those things I may never be able to grasp fully because of the way my brain is built. LOL.

Sometime ago, maybe it was right around the end of December last year, I joined the site and donated $20 to get the badge for 2012. At least I think it was for 2012, which was crazy since 2012 was almost over. Whatever ... I was feeling generous at the time. I also remember "purchasing" at least one kit (or maybe it was a set of elements and the matching papers). I don't know for sure, and I have been unable to find an account history of what I've paid and what I've bought. Do you have such a thing?

In any case, it is my understanding that I received 200 bonus points for my donation, plus I had a few community user points as well. Unfortunately, I didn't have time then to complete my profile, which I have done tonight, and I haven't logged onto the site since then, at least as far as I know. It's been a very difficult year for me because of the many demands placed on my time first by the part-time job I had until Easter Sunday (2012) and then subsequently by the new work I took on editing online course materials for a company in the U.S.

I also sustained a concussion three days before my birthday in March when a heavy wooden shutter came unstuck from its hooks and hit the top of my head. This accident pretty much spelled the end of the part-time job since my employer refused to pay for any medical treatment, and I've been unable to afford going to a neurologist on my own, even with Medicare and the other health insurance I have. Not only are doctors and hospitals exorbitant here in the USVI, it is also difficult to find anyone I feel I can trust.

So, what I'm trying to find out is why my 200+ points are down to 75 points only. Shouldn't I have more if I only purchased one kit, maybe even two kits? I thought points gained via donations never expire. Can you tell me exactly what I purchased and how my points were disbursed? I want to buy Marisa's Chinese Orient kit that I missed during the DSF blog train, though 18 of the 22 participants still have active links and I was able to get their contributions with no problem at all.

Thanks in advance for your help in clearing up the confusion I have about points and so on. I will also make a much greater effort to visit the site and participate on a daily basis (if necessary) so I not only can earn more points, but also become a full-fledged member of the community. Two of my favorite sites have closed, one at the end of 2012 and the other at the end of February 2013, and I'm looking for a new digiscrapping home online.

I've searched our records and did indeed find your donation. Normally donations are processed by the site automatically, which gives you your supporter badge, and all the download credits. For some reason, your download did not process correctly, so it looks like you never got your download credits, or your badge! . I've very sorry for that, and for the confusion that it caused. I will get those items processed right away, as well as giving you some extra download credits to make up for this mistake.

I'm very sorry to hear about the other difficulties you've had as well (the concussion, etc.). You are very welcome at Pixel Scrapper, and I hope that we can provide you with a friendly, supportive community, and a site that is not too confusing .

We're working on our system constantly, and hope to make everything work better, and be easier to understand in the coming months. There's just a lot to work on. But please do let us know any time you find something confusing, or if something doesn't work as it should: your feedback is very important to us.

Jordan, hello, I too have had problems with my DC. It's nice to know you are able to check on your log to see what is going on. I've been at 8 for the past couple of weeks now. Very frustrating as I love so many things here and have been tying to save up. Any help you can provide would be more than great.

The long and the short of it is that free daily download credits to not accumulate, so you cannot save them up beyond what you get each day. This is necessary in order for us not to go bankrupt serving free downloads. You can donate or participate in a challenge to receive large chunks of download credits.

I hope that helps. Please let me know if you are still confused about anything. And welcome to Pixel Srapper: we're really glad to have you here